@gcode, the EU and the US are not comparable on many levels. For one is still a federation of more or less sovereign countries. In some parts there are EU regulations, but not in all, and one of those areas is employment/working law. Therefore unions are regulated by different rules in every country and their power effectively ends at the borders of each country. Companies on the other hand can work crossborder as much as they want to. There are local regulations of course, but they can work with them, the important stuff is european legislation.
Unions are working more closely together, but there are practical and psychological limits to that. ECA is the central organisation for that, but it is not a union it its own right, rather a EU lobby organisation.
Not to mention, the aviation market is of course completely different between the US and EU. The chance to get 1500 hours for every pilot the airlines need is simply not there, the GA business sector is a lot smaller in europe, in some parts nearly non-existent.
And yes, i do agree with the realisation that the major carriers will be put under pressure in the foreseeable future, it happened already at Lufthansa, but they still managed to put fence around their conditions, however at the price at completely removing their scope clause.